U.S. risks thousands of lives as it reopens
Some Americans seem done with COVID-19, but it’s not done with them
WASHINGTON— As massive daily protests for police reform and racial justice have taken to the streets for more than two weeks, there has been a lot to find remarkable about them, particularly how they’ve grown and the rapid shift in public opinion they’ve inspired.
But it has also been impossible not to notice another sudden change: with thousands of people crowded together in the street for hours, shoulder to shoulder, chanting and shouting, it appears months of social distancing practice had been abandoned. To be sure, the overwhelming majority of protesters wore masks, and the risk-benefit calculations of the protests’ aims and the coronavirus were subject of serious consideration and debate. But the widespread decision that the risks were worth taking was still remarkable, given the lockdowns they emerged from.
The protesters are far from alone in that respect. Las Vegas has reopened its casinos. People are going to the malls in Utah. Boardwalks in beach towns like Ocean City, Md., are packed. Restrictions that were implemented to halt the spread of coronavirus have continued to be lifted in many parts of the U.S.
At least some Americans feel they are done with coronavirus. But the numbers aren’t showing it is done with them. The U.S. continues to see close to 1,000 people die from COVID-19 every day. This week, 11 states — Texas, South Carolina,
North Carolina, Utah, Oregon, Arizona, Arkansas, Alabama, California, Nevada and Florida — reached their highest levels of new infections averaged over seven days, according to the Washington Post.
Some of those higher numbers are a result of more testing, but it doesn’t appear that’s the case everywhere. As Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose coronavirus task force has been scaled back by the president, said this week, “It isn’t over yet.” The financial markets have taken notice of the persistence and possible resurgence of the virus: on Thursday, stock indexes suffered their worst one-day drop since mid-March, when the initial panic over coronavirus set in.
In some places, signs of caution are emerging: Oregon announced a pause in its reopening plans Friday due to a surge in cases; the city of Houston is considering reimposing its lockdown as it “may be approaching the precipice of disaster;” Arizona hospitals have activated an emergency plan because intensive care beds are filling up.
Yet the country as a whole is not scaling back its reopening plans. Though research from University of California at Berkeley researchers published this week estimated U.S. lockdowns may have prevented almost five million cases of coronavirus, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Thursday that such measures aren’t coming back. “We can’t shut down the economy again,” he said, arguing lockdowns do too much damage to the economy to be worthwhile.
The charge to reopen regardless of consequences is being led from the top. U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence, who heads the administration’s coronavirus task force, tweeted a photo of a group of hundreds of President Donald Trump’s campaign staff members crowded together in a Virginia office, wearing no masks, in violation of local social-distancing guidelines. Trump himself reportedly intervened to relocate this summer’s Republican National Convention from Charlotte, N.C., because that state’s governor wouldn’t agree to allow a typical convention with massive crowds and no masks. (Trump has apparently found a new home for the convention in Jacksonville. Fla.)
Leading up to that businessas-usual convention, Trump is re-implementing a businessas-usual campaign: he announced this week he’d resume holding rallies, beginning June 19 in Tulsa, Okla. Trump’s campaign says it will have no social-distancing guidelines in place, beyond perhaps providing hand sanitizer.
“Americans are ready to get back to action and so is President Trump,” the New York Times quoted the president’s campaign manager saying. “The Great American Comeback is real and the rallies will be tremendous.”
Which doesn’t mean the campaign is oblivious to the risk of holding the type of event that experts have warned could be a virus superspreader. In a change from earlier practices, the sign-up page for the rally now includes a legal waiver: “By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present,” it reads. “By attending the rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury.”
It is a snapshot of much of the official attitude in the U.S. to coronavirus today: realizing a significant risk still exists, but going ahead full steam anyway, and asking the public to assume all responsibility for the consequences.